Recently, the recycling bins at Saint Louis University have been wasted. SLU students are wasteful.Haven’t noticed? Just look around. Crumpled papers. Beer cans. Milk cartons crusted in thick, yellow residue. But it’s those cheesy-residue, grease-stained pizza boxes that really take the trash-can cake.There is trash on the stairs in the Village and trash in the hallways of Griesedieck. But worst of all, there is trash in all of the recycling bins.For this reason, the recycling bins traditionally located near campus residence halls and various other buildings have been emptied and moved. Recycling bins were recently placed nearer the trash Dumpsters so that lazy Joe Billiken could no longer place his garbage in the recycling bins under the auspices of not having to walk all the way to the Dumpster. However, even in their new places next to the Dumpsters, the recycling bins are full of junk. Laziness no longer explains this-maybe we can chalk the problem up to ignorance.Perhaps you’ve never noticed trash in the recycling bins because you never knew the bins existed at all. Our current recycling setup-a system of green, two-wheeled, plastic receptacles-has only been in place for the last few years. Previously-implemented recycling systems have been dismantled. The effort and money put into these unused systems was once deemed unnecessary, but we’re hoping for a better response to the current system. Sets of containers still exist from these previous systems. This may be the cause of the confusion. The garbage cans in the Busch Student Center are labeled “recycling.” And some of the blue tubs with white lids and can-sized openings are used for everyday run-of-the-mill trash-not recycling, as they should be. This is confusing and should be fixed.If the problem is not ignorance, however, it must be an awareness of the recycling system and a conscious disregard of it. We call this stupidity.If the case of drunkenness, remember this: Recycle the bottle of every beer you drink It’s a sort of balance-a good for a bad.There are many reasons to recycle. You’ve probably heard them all: It’s our responsibility to the Earth, its creatures, our children and their children and the quality of all of our lives. If you need another reason, here’s one: Get trashed and recycle. Whatever works.Either way, whether or not you chose to recycle, at least leave the recycling bins trash-free for the rest of us.